Fish Aggregating Devices (FAD) development in the Indian Ocean Commission member-countries: innovation or revolution in fishing strategies

This paper attempts to assess the experimentations of Fish Aggregating Devices (FAD) in the countries of the Tuna-Fish Association, considering that these devices may constitute a major innovation, able to modify noticeably the dynamics of the fish-systems in which they are placed. After a review of the main realisations, our analysis was centered on the evolution and transformation processes that FAD imply in the fish systems. These processes are examined as depending of the fish resources and of the fishing tactics, as well as of che regulation modes that they may imply to solve appropriation conflicts. Attention will be put here not only on the results, in terms of efficency, but also on the determining factors of the evolution process.